They all married exotic younger men who promised eternal love – and were left alone, humiliated and out of pocket.

Now Michelle Nawar, Kirsty Carmichael and Elaine Davison are fighting back as part of a club of wives who say they were conned by scheming foreign grooms who disappear from their lives once they have UK residency.

They are battling not only unscrupulous men who prey on women like them, but also the stigma surrounding a situation they say could happen to anyone.

Michelle, 48, set up campaign group Stop UK Marriage Fraud after being taken in by an Egyptian man 10 years her junior.

She said: “A lot of people think women who fall for these scams are just silly and naive, but that’s not true.

“We hear from teachers, managers and business owners who have ended up seriously out of pocket and had their hearts broken by these men.

“It can happen to anyone. Unless you’ve been in the same situation you can’t judge those involved.”

Michelle and other women exchange stories on her secret Facebook page, joined by invitation only. Some 260 women have signed up in the past 18 months, as well as 20 British men.

Victims are often left thousands of pounds poorer by the men but, because no law has been broken, there is not much they can do about it.

“It’s not unusual for the men to run up massive credit card bills because they know they’re going to vanish once they have full residency or a passport,” Michelle says.

Wedding day: Michelle Nawar and husband Walid

“Then there’s the cost of bringing them to Britain in the first place. A fiancé visa costs around £1,000. Then you need to support them until they are allowed to work. It’s basically legal scamming.

“Once women put their husband’s names on shared documents there’s very little they or the police can do.”

The group is calling for new laws that would see the men prosecuted for fraud then thrown out of Britain.

Michelle claims the very system set up to stop immigration scams helps the tricksters get into Britain.

“Your partner can only stay in the UK for six months before you have to make the decision to marry him or let him go,” she says.

“The fact he isn’t allowed to work on a temporary visa also means you’re more likely to get married as you can’t afford to keep living on one wage.”

There are no official figures to reveal the extent of the problem. Some 530 people were linked to “sham” marriages from January to March last year, but most are thought to relate to weddings where both the bride and groom know the union is fake and money has changed hands.

Michelle says: “If a couple exchange money to get married illegally then the law comes down on them like a ton of bricks, so why are men conning woman allowed to walk away scot free?”

The women are now planning to demonstrate in their wedding dresses at Parliament for a change in the law.

Kirsty’s story

Split: Kirsty Carmichael

Kirsty Carmichael, 36, fell for barman Mehmet on holiday in Turkey.

The mum-of-two had gone to the resort of Kusadasi with a pal in summer 2007 after splitting from her husband of nine years.

Kirsty, of Livingston, West Lothian, says: “My friend was dating a pal of his and all four of us would sit up talking late into the night.

“When I got home we emailed, talked on Skype and I called him – a lot. One month my phone bill was £700.

“He’d tell me how pretty and amazing I was. I was mystified because it’s not how I saw myself. At the time I was 16 stone and didn’t think much of myself. I went back to Turkey a year later and realised I was in love with him.

“I was 28 at the time and he said he was 27, though I later found out he was 24. I’d have moved heaven and earth to be with him. Weeks later my friend and I actually drove to Turkey to see him.”

With her sons Josh, then seven, and four-year-old Matthew in tow, Kirsty spent a blissful two weeks with Mehmet as they talked about getting married.

Two months later in October 2008 she returned to organise their wedding for later in the year – but he suggested they wed immediately. Kirsty said: “I was so in love I thought ‘why not?’”

Mehmet moved to Britain in February 2009 on a visa that cost Kirsty around £1,000. He won his indefinite leave to stay in the UK on February 24, 2011 – and just two months later he left Kirsty, telling her they were just “friends who were married”.

Michelle’s story

Michelle Nawar, 48, met Egyptian Walid, 10 years her junior, while working in the office of a commercial diving company in Dubai in 2006.

They started off as friends but just weeks before Michelle, from Norwich, returned to the UK he told her he had feelings for her.

Later that year she flew out to Alexandria, where Walid’s family lived, to spend a month with him.

Michelle, a former special constable, says: “By the time I left I was in love.

“I paid £1,000 for a fiancé visa for him to come to the UK in July 2007. It gave me six months to decide whether I married him or he left the country. “

Michelle admits she had doubts when she wed Walid at Dereham registry office in Norfolk in December 2007. But she says: “I was taking a chance on love.”

For the first year or so the marriage seemed solid, but then he started to act strangely. She says: “He was running up credit card bills and if I questioned him he would become spiky.”

Walid received his UK passport on December 5, 2011. He left for Egypt a month later and never returned.

Michelle said: “I’ve been left humiliated and, if I count what I spent on a visa and keeping Walid while he was unable to work, I’m about £15,000 out of pocket.”

Elaine’s story

Divorced: Elaine Davison

Elaine Davison, 55, was swept off her feet by Adem Guler, a handsome Turkish man 20 years her junior, when they met in a UK nightclub in 2003.

Elaine, from Hull, says: “He was dark and handsome, just my type. My friend approached him for me. He told me how he came to Britain to marry another woman but claimed she treated him badly so he left her.

“Within days he was saying he loved me and wanted to be with me for ever. I guess it’s what I wanted to hear.”

They married four years later in a rushed wedding at Hull Registry Office.

Former childminder Elaine said: “I’d always dreamed of a huge white wedding, but Adem said he didn’t want any fuss.

"We didn’t even take witnesses and had to ask two workmen in the offices to sign the papers for us. When I told my parents and grown-up son Dene later that day they were shocked.”

Once they were married, she says, “the charm offensive stopped”. But they stayed together and Adem received his UK passport on July 23, 2010. Two days later he left Elaine.

Adem has since divorced her and put in a claim for a share of the equity on her £44,000 ex-council house. She says: “I could now be forced to sell it if he wins his court case. I feel like a fool.”

Yesterday Adem insisted he married Elaine for love, saying: “I had a year’s visa to stay here before we got married. We were together four years before we married. If I married her for a passport we’d have wed a long time before.”

He claimed he left Elaine after a series of arguments, and said: “I just want my share of what I put into the house.”

The Home Office said it would take action against anyone who deceived a spouse into marrying for immigration purposes, and couples must be together at least five years before using the relationship as a basis to stay in the UK.